The Artist
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Inside the clubroom, Qianshu Lian felt a bit puzzled by Yukino Yukinoshita's gaze, so he turned his head and stared back at Yukino Yukinoshita, asking.
"Did something happen between the two of you that we don't know about?" Kasumigaoka Shiwa played with her pen while her eyes darted back and forth between Qianshu Lian and Snow Below with a curious gaze.
"No, it's nothing, we just got caught spacing out by the teacher during class," Yukino Yukinoshita and Qianshu Lian said in unison.
"Both of you spaced out?"
Yui Yuigahama looked at the two of them with some surprise. Their grades were so much better than hers; did even such good students space out sometimes?
"Speaking of which, it is strange. The two of you spaced out together. No, Snow Below, the teacher wasn't talking about you, ah woo—"
Sakura Chiyo seemed to recall something and was about to continue speaking when Yukino Yukinoshita covered her mouth. Yukino Yukinoshita looked at Sakura Chiyo with a threatening gaze.
"I apologize for spacing out in class, but I'm not a machine after all. There are always times when I make mistakes, right, Chiyo-chan?"
Sakura Chiyo cowered, then hesitantly nodded. She felt as if she wasn't a good child for telling a lie.
But she was already a high school student. This, this kind of lie would always happen, right?
Sakura Chiyo comforted herself in her heart. As for whether she truly believed it, only Sakura Chiyo herself could answer that.
I, Sakura Chiyo, am by no means an easy opponent!
After cheering herself on internally, Sakura Chiyo's bow tie became energetic again.
Regardless of Sakura Chiyo, who was cheering herself on, after this commotion, both Qianshu Lian's explanation and Yukino Yukinoshita's explanation became suspicious.
"Aren't we all friends? What can't be shared?" Hachiman Hikigaya leaned closer to Qianshu Lian.
He tried to use his brotherly bond with Qianshu Lian to move him, to get him to reveal just a tiny bit of information.
But Qianshu insisted that he had indeed been distracted by his own affairs. As for what exactly those affairs were, did it really need to be delved into?
This also made Hachiman Hikigaya unable to continue probing. After all, who didn't have a secret or two?
If he were to really pry, it wouldn't be good for anyone. As a sincere brother and friend, Hachiman Hikigaya naturally wouldn't expose his friend's shortcomings.
This also made Yukino Yukinoshita come to her senses. She was still secretly reading his diary, so how could she use what was written in the diary as a basis for speculation?
Their relationship was completely insufficient. Right now, her relationship with Qianshu Lian could only be considered as familiar club members, classmates, and desk mates who might have a chance to develop their relationship.
So Yukino Yukinoshita also fell silent, which instantly relieved Qianshu Lian. Although he didn't know why Yukino Yukinoshita was suddenly so concerned about why he spaced out,
it was truly great that this relentless pursuit of answers could be suppressed. At least for a short time, Qianshu Lian didn't want to experience it again.
Soon, today's routine ended. Since they didn't know about the other circumstances, the other club members continued to work diligently.
Today's work progress was quite good. When there weren't those very complicated game development procedures, especially when only producing some icing-on-the-cake original art and small storylines,
Speaking of which, this world also seems to have a Sakura-sou. Let's see if I can abduct Shiina Mashiro sometime.
Although it might not be suitable, with Shiina Mashiro's talent, as long as someone teaches her the basics, drawing such original art would be a piece of cake.
The only drawback was not knowing how to abduct her. Even if she were to come here, it would definitely be under the care of relatives.
Although that teacher didn't seem very reliable, he would definitely not go so far as to entrust Shiina Mashiro to him, a complete stranger whom he had never met.
After all, no matter how unreliable the other party was, he should still know that Shiina Mashiro was a beautiful girl, and entrusting her to a completely unknown male stranger was impossible.
This matter could only be looked at later. Anyway, his current power didn't extend there, and he didn't know when Shiina Mashiro would come over.
Could it be that he should look for Ying Lili?
However, although Ying Lili's drawing skills were excellent, they always carried a hint of color. Not to mention that she hadn't yet "gone ashore" (stopped drawing adult content), even if she did, she wouldn't easily get rid of that art style.
It would be better to let little Chiyo continue. Little Chiyo's only drawback was that her family background wasn't good enough, and she didn't have a more professional teacher to guide her.
Moreover, her relationship with Aki Tomoya was even closer, as they could be considered childhood sweethearts.
Although Qianshu Lian had also experienced such relationships where people studied together when they were young, then separated, and reunited when they grew up, he could never connect it to the concept of childhood sweethearts.
At most, it was a childhood playmate relationship, but even this childhood playmate relationship was much closer than his, a stranger. In the future, she should agree to Aki Tomoya's request.
Silently excluding Ying Lili, Qianshu Lian simply stopped thinking about these things. Later, he would simply have the company send someone to directly bring Shiina Mashiro back.
Although he didn't have much influence there, he had money and power here. Simply inviting the other party back to establish cooperation shouldn't be a big deal.
At most, he could have Rita Ainsworth accompany her to take care of her. With such conditions, there shouldn't be any major problems, right?
"Achoo~"
Ying Lili, who had finally gotten rid of her childhood playmate's entanglement, unconsciously sneezed. At this moment, she was wondering what was going on.
As she thought, she simply pulled out a notebook and started reading it. She remembered that when she was very young, Aki Tomoya befriended her and taught her some knowledge about anime and the two-dimensional world.
Just then, she also obtained this diary that only she could see, and immediately, her chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) erupted, and she fell into it.
Although Ying Lili hadn't even reached the age of chuunibyou at that time, she also felt a slight disdain for Aki Tomoya because he couldn't see her diary.
"As a preacher, you can't even see the diary in my hand."
"This preaching is too much of a failure!"